The Candyman: Dean Corll and the Houston Mass Murders

In the early 1970s, a friendly man known as "the Candyman" would stand outside his family's candy shop across from an elementary school in Houston, handing out free chocolates to children as they left for the day. Everyone in the neighborhood liked Dean Corll. No one suspected he was torturing and murdering teenage boys—at least 29 confirmed victims, making him the deadliest serial killer in American history at the time, yet a name that remains largely unknown.

A Normal Childhood That May Not Have Been

Dean Corll was born on Christmas Eve 1939 in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the eldest of two sons. By most accounts, his childhood appeared unremarkable—no obvious trauma, no abuse. His father was a strict disciplinarian, his mother Mary coddled her sons, and the parents divorced when Dean was six. Mary remarried and divorced quickly, then married again, eventually giving birth to Dean's half-sister.

But nearly everything known about Dean's early life came from Mary herself, who remained fiercely protective of her son until her death. As the host notes, "it is extremely possible that maybe there's some things that she's sugarcoating or leaving out." What is clear is that Dean showed little emotion as a child, preferred being alone, and had no interest in peers his own age.